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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26502943">Inclination to Injustice</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/writeitininkorinblood/pseuds/writeitininkorinblood'>writeitininkorinblood</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>I'll Pray For You [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Cursed (TV 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Love Confessions, M/M, fey council</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 13:06:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,262</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26502943</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/writeitininkorinblood/pseuds/writeitininkorinblood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Nimue started a Fey Council where anyone could raise a vote, she should have expected this. <br/>or<br/>Gawain feels about 100 emotions in one fic.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gawain | The Green Knight/The Weeping Monk | Lancelot (Cursed)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>I'll Pray For You [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1870960</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>106</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Inclination to Injustice</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nimue summoned Gawain to her tent more often of a day than not. Sometimes it was to talk strategy, or discuss yet another new problem that had arisen in camp, but usually it was because she just needed a friend to reassure her everything was going to be okay and Gawain had perfected that lie. So it hadn’t seemed like an odd occasion when Squirrel found him lazily enjoying an afternoon off with Lancelot, playing cards in the shade of one of the trees at the edge of the forest, and explained Nimue wanted to see him. As much as Gawain loved teaching Lancelot to gamble, delighting in helping him systematically go against every single one of Carden’s twisted teachings, his Ash Man had encouraged him to go to his sister, with a whispered promise that he’d make good on the gambling debts he’d stacked up later that night. So he’d kissed him gently, ignoring Squirrel’s groan of complaint, and headed back into camp.</p>
<p>It was difficult to knock on tent canvas so Gawain cleared his throat and called Nimue’s name from outside. Usually a hand would appear and grab him by the arm to pull him inside, but instead he got a flat and emotionless ‘come in’ that immediately had his stomach falling to the floor. He couldn’t get in quick enough, readying himself for a threat but finding nothing but Nimue alone, sitting at the table that usually held Council meetings with her head bowed.</p>
<p>“They want to vote,” she mumbled, before Gawain had a chance to ask her what was wrong.<br/>Pulling out another chair, he sank down into it to be on her level and reached out to take her hand.</p>
<p>“On what?” he asked gently, assuming she meant the Council. They did an awful lot of voting.<br/>“On whether Lancelot should be allowed to stay.”</p>
<p>Gawain dropped her hand. His mouth went dry and all of his joints seemed to pop at once from the tension that ran through him. He thought they were well past this. Of all of the things that he worried about, Lancelot being ousted by the Fey themselves never crossed his mind.<br/>“He’s been here almost four months,” he said, struggling to get the words out.</p>
<p>Lancelot hadn’t done anything wrong, hadn’t antagonised anyone. He’d been nothing but courteous and helpful.<br/>“I know,” Nimue sighed. “And hopefully that will play in his favour. He’s earned his place here.”</p>
<p>If it was coming from anyone but his Queen, Gawain would have simply agreed, but she was the one person who could actually act on that thought and grant Lancelot amnesty.</p>
<p>“Then why bother voting on it?” he asked, gritting his teeth and trying not to get angry.<br/>“Because I started a Council for a reason. Every Fey clan gets a say. If someone calls a vote, I have to honour it.”</p>
<p>To Nimue’s credit, she had tears in her eyes when she looked up at him. It pained her to do this to Lancelot, and to Gawain. She loved her brother and wanted him happy, and no one made him happy like his grumpy, gentle boyfriend. Lancelot himself was quickly finding a space in her heart too, so good with the Fey children and always the first to volunteer to help with anything that needed doing before she even had to ask. He really had earned his place.<br/>“Who called it?” Gawain growled.</p>
<p>“Gawain-” she tried to protest but he wasn’t having any of it.</p>
<p>“Who?” he demanded.</p>
<p>“Some of the Tusks,” she admitted.</p>
<p>She could see the look in his eyes as he decided whether to stay calm or to launch a war, but she knew him. He wouldn’t hurt anyone at camp, regardless of how angry he got. In an ideal world she’d let him think it all through at his own pace until he came to the conclusion that severing the heads of several Tusks wouldn’t help, but she had something to add and she had to do it before she lost her nerve.</p>
<p>“Gawain, I don’t think I can let you vote,” she whispered, eyes squeezed closed.</p>
<p>There was a long pause where Nimue wondered if Gawain was considering removing her head instead.<br/>“What?”<br/>“You can’t exactly remain impartial,” she explained.</p>
<p>Gawain’s heart had practically stopped beating. He was frantically trying to work out who on the Council might vote for Lancelot to be removed from camp but he couldn’t be certain what half the Elders would chose and if he wasn’t allowed his usual say then that was one vote less that they’d need to be successful in making him leave. He imagined the camp without his lover, without waking up beside him and pressing kisses to his collarbone, without slumping down beside him after a long day and immediately being drawn into an embrace, without sparring with someone who could actually beat him, fire in his eyes as he did. He loved what his life had become now Lancelot was in it and he refused to accept that other people had the right to take that all away just because they didn’t understand how cruel and manipulative the Paladins had been.</p>
<p>“Please don’t do this,” he begged, his voice catching on the tears he was trying not to let show. He’d never felt so desperate. “We let Arthur stay. On your word alone, we let him stay at Nemos.”</p>
<p>“And Morgana’s word,” Nimue insisted, but Gawain just scoffed.</p>
<p>“No, Nimue, yours. Morgana would happily have never seen him again at the time.”</p>
<p>That, she had to concede. But that didn’t meant their situations were the same and she couldn’t stand it when Gawain threw Arthur back in her face like that, still harbouring his hatred for Man-Bloods even if he’d accepted that this particular human was an ally and a friend.</p>
<p>“Regardless, Arthur isn’t responsible for the devastation these clans have faced,” she reasoned.</p>
<p>Gawain raised an eyebrow.<br/>“Neither is Lancelot,” he said warningly, not about to get in to that argument again.<br/>“I know, but that’s not how they see it.”</p>
<p>“I don’t care!” Gawain finally lost his temper. “He’s Fey. This is where he belongs. The Red Paladins burned his home too and he’s got nowhere else to go. If he goes back to them, they’ll kill him. He doesn’t <em>want</em> to go back to them,” he explained, trying to stay rational but wanting to scream. <br/>“I don’t think the majority of the Council will vote for him to leave,” Nimue tried, and she truly meant the words. “I don’t want him to go either, Gawain.”<br/>“But if they do vote for him to leave?” he challenged, needing her to hear herself say she’d enforce it so she could hear how ridiculous she sounded.</p>
<p>She shook her head, not willing to entertain the thought. The Council meeting and the vote were hard enough to stomach, but the thought of ripping out Gawain’s heart like that killed her. Unless she absolutely had to, she didn’t want to think about it.</p>
<p>“You know how much you mean to me, and I know how much he means to you. Don’t-”</p>
<p>“I love him, Nimue,” Gawain interrupted, voice broken and painfully honest as he surprised them both with the words.</p>
<p>He’d never said it before. Not to Lancelot himself, not to anyone else at camp. He’d been thinking it plenty, but voicing it seemed different somehow, dangerous. Like somehow if the words were out there, someone could take them and weaponize them and use them against him. If he never said them aloud, at least they’d be safe.<br/>“I know,” Nimue said softly, covering his hand with her own. “It’ll be okay, I promise.”</p>
<p>Gawain knew she couldn’t promise anything of the sort, but he’d been through enough emotions to leave him feeling entirely devoid of anything inside and he needed something to cling on to, so he turned his hand to grab Nimue’s properly and hang on for dear life.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                                                                        *****</p>
<p> </p>
<p>If Nimue had had it her way, Gawain would have been as far away from the Council meeting on Lancelot’s fate as she could get him, but he’d gotten the time of it from an unsuspecting Arthur and turned up without an invitation, ready to lurk in the corner. When Nimue tried to convince him to leave, in hushed but heated conversations as everyone else slowly filtered in, he promised he wasn’t going to vote and that he just needed to be among the first to hear the outcome, and she’d conceded that he should be allowed at least that. So she let him lurk and hoped no one else would question the whole situation as the Council meeting began and she carefully laid out the terms of the request for their gathering. <br/>Lancelot’s pros and cons were discussed and Gawain found himself desperate to chime in, just about biting his tongue so he didn’t draw attention to himself. The full extent of his relationship with Lancelot beyond simply tent-mates wasn’t public knowledge and, while several people round the table were aware of it, many more were not. If he started to speak in Lancelot’s favour, it would immediately become very obvious. And there was also the fact that Nimue would likely kick him out.</p>
<p>The case delineated, Nimue was about to open up the floor to the vote when a hand was raised from the Fawn Elder.</p>
<p>“Why isn’t Gawain voting?” Cora spoke up, confused.</p>
<p>Gawain just turned to Nimue, pointedly waiting for her answer.</p>
<p>“I thought it best to have one representative from each clan,” she explained quickly, shooting him a dirty look. This was what she’d been hoping to avoid.</p>
<p>There was a long moment where looks were shared across the table. Arthur was there and he had no Fey clan at all. It had already come up as a point of contention in the past and Nimue had made the decision to leave him on the council, considering how he’d been the one to predict the ambush at Moycraig, and how he’d at least tried to secure the smuggler ships. Gawain had never argued with her – Arthur had earned their trust. Clearly she didn’t show his lover the same courtesy he’d shown hers.</p>
<p>“But isn’t he part of the Council?” Cora pushed again. “If the Council is voting…?”</p>
<p>While Gawain appreciated her support, he could tell this was only going to go around in circles if Nimue was going to insist on skirting around the truth. He sighed, and gave up the one thing that he’d been keeping close to his chest.<br/>“My vote was considered biased because the man you’re voting on spends every night in my bed,” he said simply, unabashed and unapologetic.</p>
<p>There was a beat of silence as everyone around the table registered his words. Cora seemed to recover first, giving him a knowing smile that suggested she’d just guessed who he’d taken on the picnic she’d given him food for. Kaze had already known but still seemed surprised for him to admit to it so openly when he usually preferred to keep his private life to himself. It was, unsurprisingly, the men who seemed to take the news most poorly.</p>
<p>“You what?” growled the Tusk elder.<br/>“I think you heard me just fine,” Gawain crossed his arms, standing firm.</p>
<p>He wouldn’t listen to them criticise his relationship, not when they had no idea what Lancelot was like. How gentle he was, how much pain he’d been through, how deeply he loved despite it all. There was no one Gawain would rather be with, not if he had the pick of every man or maiden from coast to coast. Lancelot was it for him.</p>
<p>The Tusk Elder didn’t seem to see it from his point of view.<br/>“He’s a monster,” he snarled, jumping abruptly to his feet.</p>
<p>Gawain’s hand went to the pommel of his sword. Just in case.</p>
<p>“No, he isn’t,” he said curtly, not about to dwell on the thought for a second. “If he was, I’d be the first to get him as far away from my people as possible but he’s Fey, he’s one of us, and I’d like to think that if you can’t trust him then you can at least trust me.”</p>
<p>“Clearly he’s poisoned your mind!”</p>
<p>At that Gawain drew his sword, ignoring Nimue’s hissed protests.</p>
<p>“Say that again and I will cut your tongue from your mouth,” he threatened, letting every ounce of the strength he knew he could command exude from the words. “Tell me how he’s a threat to you. He works in our field every day, helps put food on our tables. Not once has he harmed anyone since arriving at this camp, I’m willing to bet he’s never even wanted to. And he is a better man than I am for it because he wouldn’t dream of raising a blade to you like this.”</p>
<p>“Gawain! Calm down,” Nimue insisted, trying to keep her voice level but unable to entirely stop the shrill whistle to the words.</p>
<p>“I cannot sit idle while my lover is slandered,” Gawain argued.</p>
<p>“I know. But you can argue for him without a sword in your hand,” Nimue said pointedly, and Gawain had to concede to that.</p>
<p>He would never hurt one of his people. Regardless of how wrong they were in their views, he’d vowed to protect them against a world which showed them so much cruelty and he had to honour that, so he begrudgingly sheathed his sword. If he glared a little at Nimue’s back then he was sure the Hidden would forgive him. He was having a stressful day.</p>
<p>“Lancelot is not a threat to this camp. We have long established that – if he was, I would not let him remain,” Nimue explained to the Council, hoping it put an end to any further attacks on his current character that would just infuriate Gawain further. Besides, she really did like him.<br/>“Then why were we called for a vote?” Cora asked, politely raising her hand again as she did. Someone at the table had to remember their manners.</p>
<p>“Because there are some people here who will never be able to come to terms with his past, regardless of how he conducts himself in the present,” Nimue admitted with a sigh. She had to admit she saw their side of things. “We are a Council. In order for that to work, I have to listen to every member. So, we vote.”</p>
<p>There was a beat of silence and, blessedly, no one argued. Even Gawain had retreated to the other side of the tent, fuming silently rather than drawing a weapon on anyone. So Nimue continued.</p>
<p>“I need an answer from each of you, on behalf of your people. Do we allow Lancelot, considering his identity as Fey and… connection to some of our people, in spite of his history as the Weeping Monk, to stay in our camp?”</p>
<p>She gestured to each of them in turn to hear their responses but Gawain couldn’t watch, turning his back to hide any tears that might threaten to fall from his eyes. He needed this to go well. If Lancelot was forced out of camp then Gawain couldn’t let him leave alone, not when he had no home, nowhere else to go to. But he couldn’t leave the Fey camp either – they were his people, his family. He had to defend them. It was an impossible situation he’d never been forced to consider before and he hated that this was what it had come to. He just hoped that enough people had seen how good Lancelot was, how much he was trying to atone.</p>
<p>Slowly, he began to hear replies. Arthur was first, answering ‘aye’ without a second thought and flooding Gawain’s heart with appreciation for the Man-Blood. He knew it was for him more than it was for Lancelot, considering the Weeping Monk had once been moments away from killing him with eyes full of pure glee, but it still meant a lot to Gawain that Arthur considered him a close enough friend to lend him his vote like that.</p>
<p>Cora’s ‘aye’ was welcome but not unexpected, but the first dissent came soon after. Gawain was almost certain it was the Moon Wing Elder that Yeva sent to council meetings because she would not leave her birds. Her ‘he goes’ felt like a stab in the gut. It wasn’t just the Tusks who still hated Lancelot. It wasn’t going to be as simple as Gawain would love it to be.</p>
<p>He stood and bore the rest of the responses, mentally tallying them up in his head as they were uttered. It was after Kaze spoke that Gawain knew for sure that the ayes could no longer be outnumbered and that Lancelot would not be forced to leave, and he couldn’t stand there for a moment longer. Nimue’s vote still hadn’t been cast but it didn’t matter either way and Gawain, now confident in the knowledge his lover could remain at his side, needed to get away. He ignored the Council and practically fled the tent, falling to his knees almost as soon as he was outside so he could bury his hands in the ground and whisper his thanks to the Hidden.</p>
<p>It wasn’t often he spoke to them quite so overtly but he needed to grasp on to something more than tangible in that moment as an outlet for the frustration and gratefulness and anger and relief he was feeling. He ignored the strange looks he got from the people walking past and barely even heard their mutterings, until one voice rang out, clear and concerned, above all the others.</p>
<p>“Gawain? Is something wrong?”</p>
<p>When he looked up to find Lancelot stood before him, quizzical and a little worried, Gawain launched himself up, pulling his lover close to him and kissing him so deeply he could feel nothing but the Ash Man against his body, in his lungs, in his heart. His hands were on Lancelot’s face, careless of the streaked marks they were leaving behind from their recent stint buried in the mud.</p>
<p>He hadn’t told Lancelot about the vote, and still didn’t plan to, but he was overflowing with gratitude that his lover was accepted by the majority of the camp and it was too much to bear on his own. Lancelot didn’t seem to mind sharing part of the burden, eagerly kissing him back. There were certainly people looking, there was no doubt about it, and this probably wasn’t the ideal way for anyone to find out about their relationship, but Gawain didn’t have the space left inside him to care.</p>
<p>“I love you,” he mumbled, barely separating their lips enough to form vowels.</p>
<p>Later he would despair that he had not chosen to say the words at a time he would have been able to see Lancelot’s face, because he was certain it would have been beautiful, but he at least heard the shocked gasp and desperate whine as Lancelot stepped even closer to kiss him again.</p>
<p>“I love you, too,” Lancelot whispered back. “Please take me home.”</p>
<p>While he didn’t regret the lavish display of affection, considering the admittances that they’d made, he very much didn’t want to have people watching them anymore. Thankfully Gawain was all too willing to grab his hand and hurry back to their tent where they could continue in private. Lancelot did still have his gambling debts to pay off, after all.</p>
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